Safety belt for a sleeping child/small person in a vehicle

ABSTRACT

This invention sets forth one or more seat belts which are secured at one end to the vehicle body in front of the seat and which extends upwardly and across the seat to connect with the usual well known buckle. The belt can be a retractable type so that it does not flop around on the floor in front of the seat. The belt can pass through a loop on the upper front of the seat. This belt would be used to protect a person, such as a child, lying prone on the seat such as during sleeping.

This invention is directed to a Safety Belt for a sleeping child/smallperson in a vehicle and more Particularly for a child/small personsleeping on a back seat of an automobile. This invention is acontinuation in-part of Ser. No. 09/154,207, filed Sep. 16, 1998.

It is well known that laws have been passed which require a child up toa certain age and weight to be secured in a safety seat. Further, it iswell known that children up to a certain age and weight must berestrained by a seat belt and that adults are encouraged to use safetybelts while driving or riding in a vehicle.

It is obvious that people get sleepy while riding in a vehicle. It istherefore an object of this invention to restrain a person, moreparticularly a child, in a comfortable reclined position while sleepingin a vehicle on the back seat.

Another object is to restrain a child during a sleep period by use ofthe safety belts already provided within the vehicle for normal use.

Other objects and details of the invention will become obvious to thoseskilled in the art from an understanding of the ensuring description ofthe drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 and FIG. 1A are views illustrating the existing simplearrangements of the seat belts;

FIG. 2 illustrates a modification of the arrangement set forth in FIG.1, illustrating a crossed safety belt, shown in dotted lines whichprovide a more secure arrangement of the seat belts;

FIG. 3 illustrates a modification of the arrangement set forth in FIG.1A, illustrating crossed safety belts, some shown in dotted lines whichprovide a more secure arrangement of the seat belt; and

FIG. 4 illustrates a modification of belts secured in front of the seat.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Now referring to the drawings, there is shown a perspective view of aback seat (10) of a vehicle including two shoulder straps (12), (14);one lap strap (16); three securing buckles (18), (20), (22), of any wellknown type. Also, shown is a view of a back seat (24) of a vehicleincluding three sets of seat belts (26), (28), (30), each of which areprovided with their usual securing tabs or latches (32), (34), (36) ofany well known type. Such arrangements are well known and obvious to oneskilled in the art.

The invention concept is directed to the use of the regular seat beltwhich makes use of a buckle on the front side of the seat such as shownby buckles (38), (40), (42). The buckle can be secured to the floordirectly in front of the seat or the seat could have an indentation inwhich the buckle will not be in a person's way during regular use of theback seat. When a child/small person gets sleepy, the child can stretchout on the back seat and use one or two of the belts in order in whichthe tab or latch is secured to the buckle.

It would be obvious as shown in FIG. 2, that a seat belt could becrossed and the tab or buckle buckled to a buckle which is not directlyto the front of the belt.

In order to prevent a child from falling to the front of the seatbetween the seat and the belt when in use, for a child in a reclinedposition, the seat could be provided with a loop (44) along the upperedge so that the belt could be slipped through the loop and then the tabor latch is secured to the buckle. The child would then be restrained bythe safety belt between the loop (44) on the seat and the back of theseat.

It would be obvious to one skilled in the art upon viewing thedisclosure that a double buckle could be used at the middle of the seatas well as at the ends. Thus, the belts could be used directly with onebuckle and crossed to the other buckle of the double buckle, such as setforth in FIG. 3 in which the belts are shown in full and in dottedlines.

The loop (44) would not be necessary if the buckle were to be attachedby a length of material attached to the seat so that the buckle is heldclose to the upper edge of the seat. By such an arrangement, the childcould not slip between the buckle and the seat. Obvious, the safety ofthe child is of the utmost importance, so that the arrangement of theseat belt and securing of the tab or latch to the buckle is of the bestand safest arrangement to prevent any harm to the child.

The invention is directed to the use of a safety belt including a tab orlatch connection in combination with a belt buckle which is provided inrelationship with a seat such that the buckle is along a surface of theseat which is opposite from a back rest. Thus, as described for aregular seat of a vehicle, the belt and buckle could be associated witha seat which faces to the rear of the vehicle such as in a station wagonor a van. The buckle would be positioned such that the belt passes overa person's body when laying down and then the tab or latch of the beltsecured to a buckle to a side of the seat away from the back of theseat.

For the purpose of the invention, the back side will be defined as theside of the seat with a back rest. The front side will be the side ofthe seat opposite to the back rest, whether the seat faces to the frontor to the back.

In addition of the above described invention is a seat belt (50) whichis secured at one end to the floor of the vehicle immediately in frontof the seat. The opposite end of the belt is provided with a latch end(52) which will fit into a buckle (54) to which a normally used belt issecured. In order to prevent the seat belt from flopping around on thefloor in front of the seat, the seat belt should be of a retractabletype so that the belt will be wound up into a small bundle. In use, theadditional seat belt could be added to the seat such as shown in FIGS.1-3, or added in front of a normally used seat. In order to secure theseat belt (50) in a fixed position across the seat, the belt can passthrough a loop (56) secured to the upper front of the seat. The addedseat belt can pass through the loop and then pass over a person's bodylying prone on the seat and the latch end secured to a regular buckle inorder to prevent the person from falling off the seat and to protect theperson in case of an accident. More than one belt can be added foradditional protection. The belts can be secured somewhat perpendicularto the back of the seat or can be crossed to a buckle at an angle withthe back of the seat. The belts are secured to the floor and secured tothe normal buckle regularly used with the regular belt of the vehicle.

Instead of the seat belt and buckle already secured in a vehicle, theycan be made such that the seat belt and buckle are made outside of thevehicle for being secured later in a vehicle. The belt can beretractable for mounting in front of the seat with a correspondingbuckle mounted to the back of the seat. Also, the belt and buckle can bemade for the belt to be secured to a place behind the seat with thebuckle in front of the seat. A loop could be included in the package forsecuring the loop to a front edge of the seat.

We claim:
 1. A safety seat belt arrangement which includes: at least onefirst seat belt including a latch end that passes from a back side of aseat, at least one seat belt buckle secured to a vehicle body on a frontside of said seat to which said at least one seat belt latch end issecured when in use, at least one second seat belt that has one endsecured to a front of said seat, a second end of said at least onesecond seat belt with a latch, and at least one buckle secured at a backside of said seat to which said latch of said at least one second seatbelt is secured when in use.
 2. A safety seat belt arrangement as setforth in claim 1, in which at least one first loop is secured to anupper front end of said seat through which said at least one first seatbelt passes, and at least one second loop is secured to the upper frontend of the seat through which said at least one second seat belt passes.3. A safety seat belt arrangement as set forth in claim 2, in which,said at least one second seat belt is retractable.
 4. A safety seat beltarrangement as set forth in claim 1, in which, said at least one secondseat belt is retractable.
 5. A safety seat belt for protecting a personlying on a seat of a vehicle; said safety seat belt includes a first endwhich is secured to the vehicle in front of the seat, said safety seatbelt includes a second end which includes a latch that secures to abuckle of a vehicle seat belt secured at a back side of the seat; saidseat includes a loop along an upper front end of said seat through whichsaid latch passes, whereby the second end of the safety seat belt passesover a person's body lying prone on the seat to protect the person.
 6. Asafety seat belt as set forth in claim 5, in which, said seat belt is ofa retractable type.